


what do we think we might see

by sabinelagrande



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M, Or Cloudgazing, Stargazing, Whichever Works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-14
Updated: 2013-09-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 19:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1316356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sabinelagrande/pseuds/sabinelagrande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Glow Cloud: romantic in the right light.</p>
            </blockquote>





	what do we think we might see

"This seems like an odd thing to do," Cecil says skeptically, as he helps Carlos set up the shelter of plastic sheeting, just wide enough for two people close together. "I mean, it is a toxic cloud of nightmares which occasionally tampers with our memories, but it’s also an upstanding member of the community."

"It’ll be nice," Carlos tells him. Cecil gives him another look of confused doubt, but he crawls into the little clear cave that they’ve constructed, laying down on the soft blanket. Carlos crawls in next to him, tucking himself up against Cecil’s body, and Cecil puts an arm around him, holding him close.

Carlos has calculated it very carefully, the distance that one needs to be from the Glow Cloud to keep from being mind-controlled by it and still see the lights, though he’s still set up the plastic sheeting in case it moves and starts dropping animals on them.

"It is pretty," Cecil tells him, gazing up into the shifting kaleidoscope of the cloud, studying its patterns. Carlos looks at it for a moment, but then he turns, studying Cecil instead. This is the real reason he wanted to come out here. He wanted to see the way the colors of the cloud dance on Cecil’s light brown skin, lighting it up with hues that don’t have names, don’t need names. It’s how he sees Cecil all the time, so human and so Night Vale, inured to the bizarreness of the world around him and still lit up with a sense of wonder.

The wind is getting cooler, though cool is relative in the desert, and Carlos snuggles closer. The Cloud is shifting, drifting away from them. Cecil sighs, looking over and catching Carlos looking at him. “I thought you wanted to see the colors,” Cecil says.

"I saw them," Carlos says, kissing his cheek.

"Either way, they’re gone now," Cecil says, gesturing up past the plastic. "All there is now is void."

"All there is now is stars," Carlos tells him. He’s never understood that about Night Vale, how sure they all are that the sky is nothing but void, when Carlos looks up and sees a riot of stars, constellations, galaxies. He can’t even understand why they think the night sky is black, not when there are so many tiny lights surrounding the huge, low-hanging moon that it practically looks white. He can’t understand so much about Night Vale; it seems to matter less and less, but somehow, the stars still matter.

Cecil doesn’t respond. He just draws Carlos closer, kissing him.


End file.
